David Chipperfield-designed Hepworth Wakefield named Britain’s Museum of the Year 2017

Winner of Art Fund's prestigious Museum of the Year prize: the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire, England. Photo: Iwan Baan.

[...] Art Fund Museum of the Year is awarded annually to one outstanding museum, which, in the opinion of the judges, has shown exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement across the preceding 12 months.

The Hepworth Wakefield was selected as winner of the £100,000 prize from a group of five finalists, also including Lapworth Museum of Geology (Birmingham), National Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art (Newmarket), Sir John Soane’s Museum (London) and Tate Modern (London).

"The Hepworth Wakefield has been a powerful force of energy from the moment it opened in 2011, but it has just kept growing in reach and impact ever since," said Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar. "David Chipperfield’s building has proved a perfect stage – both for the display of collections and as the platform for a breathtaking sequence of special exhibitions, curated with determined originality by the talented curatorial team."

Comprised of a series of 10 small, irregular, trapezoidal blocks, the gallery also won a 2012 RIBA Award for architectural excellence and was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in the same year.